Trust, companies and culture

I've just had a conversation the establishment and importance of trust within companies. Had made me think about the stark differences in which different counties do business. I'll explain using two examples I know - Western Americanized methods and the approach taken in Arabic countries.

The first is fast-paced, fairly impersonal (?). You want to get in, make the best deal you can, and then get out. The less time taken the better because then you have more time to spend on the next deal, and the next one and so on. I was told about the trouble American corporations have doing business with Arabic-based companies because they like to dedicate their first meeting to sitting down, having coffee and talking; getting to know the person they're considering doing business with. To attempt to discuss the deal in those early days is apparently a terrible breach of etiquette. It all comes back to trust... get to know the person, their business, their ethics - do you like them, do you want to collaborate with them, do you trust them?